David prayed to the Lord: "Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense; and the liftingup of my hands as the evening sacrifice." (Psalm 141:2)
This has reference to the morning and evening worship of the sanctuary when incense was offered while all the people were praying without: "And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations." (Exodus 30:7-8) "According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense." (Luke 1:9-10)
In the book of Revelation we read that an angel came to the altar in heaven, "Having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should add it unto the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God, out of the angel's hand." (Revelation 7:3-4)
Still more emphatic is the statement that: "The four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." (Revelation 5:8)
From these things we may know that prayers offered in faith, and there is no other real prayer, are not empty sounds before the Lord, but that they come before Him in visible form. They appeal not to His ears only, but to His eyes as well.
This is an additional proof that He gives to us that He will not forget to answer them. He has them continually before Him.--Present Truth, January 4, 1894--Psalm 141:2.